Boycott Hollywood's ‘fantasy’ Ramayan movie, its an insult to Hindus

[Sarva gattah]

 

 

Boycott Hollywood's ‘fantasy’ Ramayan movie, its an insult to Hindus!!

 

 

Hollywood's 'Ramayan 3392 AD' calling all concern

 

New Delhi, Fri, 24 Oct 2008 NI Wire

 

 

 

 

 

Censure of the upcoming Mandalay's film "Ramayan 3392 A.D." over the signals of its presentation of re-imagined version of sacred Hindu scripture Ramayan is broadening quickly among both Hindu and non-Hindu circles.

 

Supporting the movement spearheaded by prominent Hindu and Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, various Hindu and non-Hindu organizations and leaders have been coming out expressing concern about the possibility of the film showing re-imagined or sci-fi version of ancient Sanskrit scripture in the movie, thus hurting the sentiments of Hindus worldwide.

 

Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, has been saying that Ramayan was a highly revered scripture of Hinduism. Hollywood was welcome to make a movie about Ramayan but the final product should be the true depiction of it and not a fantasised or a re-imagined version. Changing Ramayan to fit the Hollywood machine was likely to hurt the Hindu sentiments.

 

Nevada Clergy Association (NCA), formed of various religions and denominations, has come in the support of perturbed Hindus. Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr., NCA President, in a statement in Nevada (USA), said, "We at the NCA urge the makers of this film to have a feel for the sensitivities of the devotees, depict the scripture in its authentic form without any alterations and consult Hindu leaders like acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed and others before launching this venture."

 

Even Jews have backed the Hindus on this issue. Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California, in a statement at South Lake Tahoe (California, USA), said, "I join Rajan Zed in urging the makers of Ramayan 3392 A.D. to use care and respect when depicting a text held sacred by more than a billion Hindus. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus all share a reverence for central texts. We must unite to ask for mutual respect of each others' texts."

 

Bhavna Shinde, who represents Hindu Janjagruti Samiti in USA, in a communiqué to Peter Guber, Chairman of Mandalay Entertainment Group, said "…We urge you to feel the pain of the Hindu community, and stay faithful to the story and the spirit of the timeless holy epic, presenting the final product with a true depiction of Ramayan…"

 

Vamsi Krishna, leader of Sanatan Sanstha in Australia, in a separate communiqué to Guber, said, "…We request you sincerely not to tamper with this epic life story of Lord Rama. This holy book of Ramayan is very sacred to the Hindu's, it is a scripture which has inspired humanity century after century…"

 

Somnath Paramshetti, President of Forum for Hindu Awakening, also in a communiqué to Guber, wrote "…'Ramayana' is a Holy Scripture for Hindus. Over a billion Hindus all over the world hold it in reverence. What you call as the characters in 'Ramayana' are divine Incarnations worshipped by Hindus…"

 

Nevada clergy asks makers of Hollywood movie on Ramayan to "depict scripture without any alterations"

 

Jawahar L. Khurana, Chairperson of Hindu Alliance of India, says that Mandalay and its chairman Guber are well respected in Hollywood and we expect them to be responsive to the pain of the one billion strong Hindu community spread worldwide when handling sacred scriptures like Ramayan.

 

Calling it "disrespectful and sacrilegious", Madhava Smullen says in ISKCON News Weekly of International Society for Krishna Consciousness: "Let's boycott this production in any way we can".

 

Annabelle Younger, Northern Nevada president of ISKCON, points out "…it is with great sadness that corruption of this great epic's name will be associated with this movie." Shri Ramayan Pracharini Sabha and India Heritage Panel have also expressed serious perturbation over this movie venture.

 

Nevada clergy asks makers of Hollywood movie on Ramayan to "depict scripture without any alterations"

 

Motion picture company Mandalay Pictures, producer Mark Canton of "300" fame, and Liquid Comics have teamed up to make this movie "Ramayan 3392 A.D." Ramayan, an ancient Sanskrit scripture that consists of 24,000 stanzas, explores various themes, including human existence, concept of dharma, etc. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion followers. Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal of Hinduism.

 

Sony and Virgin Comics have announced a partnership to develop an MMO based on the comic book, “Ramayan 3392 A.D.” Sony will develop and publish the game, while Virgin will act as creative consultant.

 

The comic book, written by Shamik Dasgupta, was originally published in late 2006 and deals with a futuristic re-imagining of a well-known Indian epic, called “The Ramayana.” The story deals with the conflicts between human and demon factions in a post-apocalyptic world. The spiritual links found in the epic however are replaced with technology in the comic book. Many of the demons, for example, are created through robotics and nano-technology.

 

 

 

The game promises to be a different experience for players, as the core story elements will be derived from mythology probably less known to most gamers. As Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Virgin Comics, explained:

 

“In a world increasingly dominated with games influenced by a western Tolkien mythos, Ramayan will offer gamers a chance to experience a whole new universe of characters and archetypes derived from one of the oldest cultures on Earth. Our mission at Virgin Comics has always been to allow this generation of Indian youth to have a creative platform through which to speak to the world. Through this collaboration with the likeminded visionaries at SOE, our young Indian creators will make gaming history worldwide.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eshwaar101]

well look at the it amazese me at how hollywood just liturally eats up everything they could get there hands on.....they have no respect for such an ancient stroy..........the world is blinded by stardom

[RadhaMukunda]

The only way I could support a boycot is after seeing the movie. Otherwise I wouldn't know what I was boycotting. A massive boycot will create more curiosity. But I have to say that I don't like the Ramayana being depicted as fantasy. It's as insulting to Hindus as is making a fantasy film about the holocaust to Jews. Rama and Hanuman are worshiped in Hinduism with the utmost devotion. I have no idea how this film is going to display the divinity of Shri Rama or if they will make Hinduism look like a joke and put our sacred stories on the same pile as anything from Walt Disney.

[Amlesh]

 

The only way I could support a boycot is after seeing the movie. Otherwise I wouldn't know what I was boycotting. A massive boycot will create more curiosity. But I have to say that I don't like the Ramayana being depicted as fantasy. It's as insulting to Hindus as is making a fantasy film about the holocaust to Jews. Rama and Hanuman are worshiped in Hinduism with the utmost devotion. I have no idea how this film is going to display the divinity of Shri Rama or if they will make Hinduism look like a joke and put our sacred stories on the same pile as anything from Walt Disney.

 

Pragmatic as always.

[paarsurrey]

 

"I join Rajan Zed in urging the makers of Ramayan 3392 A.D. to use care and respect when depicting a text held sacred by more than a billion Hindus. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus all share a reverence for central texts. We must unite to ask for mutual respect of each others' texts."

 

 

Hi

 

Boycotting may not bring results with the Hollywood people.

 

It would be more appropriate to defend the true faith with reasonable and rational arguments. It would be more useful and peaceful for those who are most often a sort of Atheists/Agnostics or non-believers.

 

Thanks

[srikanthdk71]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayan_3392_A.D.

 

I found that this is just a fantasy story that if Ramayan happens to have taken place in 3392 AD. Whats the hue and cry about?

[Amlesh]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayan_3392_A.D.

 

I found that this is just a fantasy story that if Ramayan happens to have taken place in 3392 AD. Whats the hue and cry about?

Just that Truth does not get distorted.

[stonehearted]

 

The only way I could support a boycot is after seeing the movie. Otherwise I wouldn't know what I was boycotting. A massive boycot will create more curiosity.

 

You may not be aware of the meaning of the word boycott. It means, in this case, to join together in not going to see the film. Now, yours is certainly a reasonable approach to protesting the film. But organizing a boycott means getting masses of potential viewers to refuse to see the film and thereby refuse to give their money to the producers and distributers. I'm sure they'd be delighted if you (and the rest of us here and elsewhere) spent $10 to see the flick, then wrote letters to the editor screaming about how anti-religious it is. That would arouse even more curiosity and fan ticket sales.

[Gaea]

I read the comic - i thought it was great.

 

I can see how you might get offended though. Hey, maybe putting it on the big screen might encourage people to look up the original. Even if one person does this, isn't that a good thing. To be honest I have time and money better spent elsewhere than boycotting a movie. Who knows, you might even enjoy watching it.

[Amlesh]

The synthesis is to hire a pirated copy of the Ramayana which is the cheapest and see whether that version is genuine or not.

 

If Version == Genuine THEN

printf("We watch again paying $10.00 in the Cinema Hall.");

printf("We encourage others to watch also.");

ELSE

printf("We boycott the Cinema Hall.");

END IF

[thehat]

And shall we boycott Deepak Chopra so that he never does anything like this again?

[RadhaMukunda]

What's the connection with Deepak Chopra?

[srikanthdk71]

 

The synthesis is to hire a pirated copy of the Ramayana which is the cheapest and see whether that version is genuine or not.

 

If Version == Genuine THEN

printf("We watch again paying $10.00 in the Cinema Hall.");

printf("We encourage others to watch also.");

ELSE

printf("We boycott the Cinema Hall.");

END IF

 

Amlesh, you have a good sense of Humour. Keep the good work going.

[thehat]

 

What's the connection with Deepak Chopra?

 

Deepak Chopra was the creator of it. And his son did the artwork for it.

[Amlesh]

 

Amlesh, you have a good sense of Humour. Keep the good work going.

Thanks Sri.